Pause for Thanks...

...because life is a crazy adventure where anything can happen!  I would like to take a moment to thank my family and friends for their support in this project.  I would not be as far along (or maybe working on this project at all) without their (your) help, support, and cheer-leading! 

In other news, life threw me a curveball, and I have to purchase another car.  I think I have it worked out to where I can make it all work and still have the funds to finish this project on time.  In the mean time, though, I will be living even more Spartanly than I already was.  I will be very happy when the major renovations are done and the boat is in the water this spring. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving (those of you that celebrate it)!!!!

Please Pardon My Perspective

I have been thinking about lack of useable flat surfaces inside the boat.  Many boats have fold out tables to facilitate having a table, but not taking up space.  I think the C-26 was pre-fold out table in the world of boats, or at least a design feature that was not utilized.  The boat also lacks a chart table for navigation, mostly due to size restrictions in the cabin.  I think I may have come up with a halfways genius idea for the counter space/chart table issue (even if I do say so myself)! 

Okay, so here is the explanation to go with the picture.  The black sharpie is the current design of the port galley cabinet and port bunk.  The red sharpie is the proposed new/rebuilt bunk.  It will be raised 6-8 inches above where the bunk currently is to facilitate a better sitting position when the table is not in the stowed position (stowed in the bottom right of the picture).  I will be adding a second vertical support, as I will be sitting there, and I am not exactly the smallest of people.  Plus it adds strength to the bunk as a whole and will allow me to add a chart draw under the bunk/seat.  Raising the whole bunk will also give me a substantial boost in storage space aft of the added second vertical support.  The blue sharpie is where the table will rest in the up position.  There is a sketch of how it will be supported in the upper left corner.  I was also originally thinking of having it open up, but then realized that to get to whatever is stored in the table/box, I would have to pull the cushions off, then lift the lid while likely holding the cushion out of the way with one hand.  This didn't seem really practical, so I thought instead to add a side opening draw so that in the down position, the draw is still accessible without moving anything. 

I have to say thanks for this post.  Thanks to my room mate Sarah for having sharpies!!!!!!!!  Thanks to Matt for turning me on to The Tiny House Blog, which has given me a few ideas!!

More importantly, if you have any ideas about this project, please feel free to leave comments and suggestions about how it might be better accomplished or designed!  Thank you!

Space, the Final Frontier!

Ok, maybe its the bleach and simple green cleaners in enclosed spaces getting to me, but I've really started thinking about space issues on the boat.  Maybe it is just that I spent 2 days scraping and scrubbing in all the recesses of the boat, which made me realize how little space there really is.  I have some major reconstruction to take care of, but I have also been thinking about what I can do to get more useable storage space out of the same sized space.  This is always the question when it comes to micro-housing.  First, pictures!

If you were wondering why the boat was so cheap, take a look at the following pictures.  The first picture shows the precautions I had to take to clean the boat.  The entire boat WAS covered in mold, but it is no longer.  The second pictures is the port (left) bulkhead that the chain plate is bolted to.  This holds up the rigging (mast, sails, etc) so is very structurally important, and is VERY rotten.  There are large chunks missing that I pulled out with my bare hands.  That shows how structurally unsound the bulk head is.  It will be completely replaced, which will be quite the project. (Yes, pictures and how I did it will accompany that [or those] posts.)

The third picture is one of the bunks in the main cabin (port side).  As you see, the vertical surface is missing.  That was also removed very easily with bare hands.  This brings me back to space.  This bunk has to be rebuilt.  Obvious enough, yes?  But in the rebuild process, can the original design be modified to make more useable space?  I think so.  Since I will be living on the boat, and therefore cooking, eating, sleeping, etc. on the boat, I need some areas, for example, to cut up and prep food for cooking.  Currently, there is NO place to do this.  That also means that there is no space for a chart table for navigation, which is also important!  So, during the rebuild, I will maintain a bunk, but will modify it so it can be rearranged into a chart table/counter that extends off the side of the stove/ice box cabinetry for convenience.  Another thought popped into my head while I was working on sketching out my idea.  If I have a cutting board that bridges the gaps between the two galley (kitchen) cabinets, then I will have useable counter space there also.  As a bonus, should I be cooking under sail, by not allowing myself to stand between the galley cabinets, it is much less likely I will be scalded by a pot coming off the stove top due to a wave or excessive heeling (tipping) motion.  I will try to come up with a sketch that I can post so that it is easier to visualize what I mean.

In other news, I am done scraping paint and cleaning for the moment.  That means that I can move onto other projects, and not worry about getting sick from being in the boat.  Replacing the bulkhead is probably priority number one.  Building new hatches would be priority number two.  Rebuilding/modifying the bunk is a toss up for third priority with putting in new through hulls where I will be keeping them, and glassing over the places where I will not be.  Unfortunately, glassing is temperature dependent, and I think I used up the last of my good weather to clean the boat.  I might get lucky, but probably not.  It is Maine in November after all.

Yes, the floor is still a mess, and probably will be for a while, but as you can see, cleaning the rest of the boat made a BIG difference in the appearance of the interior.  I do have to say though, while it took me 2 days of cleaning and a day of scraping paint, I can tell you that I am VERY VERY glad that I only got a 26 foot boat, instead of a 36 or 46 foot boat.  Cleaning something just 10 feet longer would probably have doubled my cleaning time.  I have to thank my mother for that insight!

In my cleaning, I also found the manufacturer's I.D. plate.  So the boat Formerly Known As is hull 213 from Columbia Yachts.  I would like to see if I can find anything on her on the net or though an owner's forum or the like.  As you can also see, there was an option for an inboard engine, but this specific boat (and not many others of this design) did not have one.  They were a very expensive option, and as I found when I was boat hunting, very expensive to maintain.  I looked into several other boats with both gas and diesel engines, but all needed serious overhauls or total replacement.  That would start around $1,000 for an overhaul that was not very extensive, to $10,000+ for a brand new, drop in diesel, plumbing, tankage, etc.  By skipping the convenience of an inboard, I have saved myself thousands of dollars, and that makes it more reasonable to achieve this whole dream.

In case you were wondering, the drain hole was KEY to cleaning this weekend.  Here is the picture to prove it!

YOU DID WHAT????!?!?!?!???

So I started out my day of work on the boat by drilling a hole in the bottom of it.  (Yes, insert post title here!)  Here is the reasoning for my seemingly crazy action.  It is winter in Maine now.  That means water freezes.  When the bilge (where water collects in the bottom of the boat) fills with water, and quite a bit of it, then freezes, that is a serious problem.  It can lead to cracking of the fiberglass, breaking the mounts for the ballast/keel, or even pushing a hole in the boat.  The man I bought the boat from had already drilled a hole in the boat to keep it from filling with water, as the hatches are not water tight (or really intact at all, for that matter).  However, when the hole was drilled, it was about a foot above the bottom of the bilge.  That means there was a lot of water that could still collect in the bilge.  When I used a manually operated bilge pump (as I do not have a battery system yet), I filled two 5 gallon buckets with really gross water, with a little water remaining in the bilge.  10 gallons of water turning into ice in a confined space is a recipe for disaster.  So what was my solution? Drill another hole.  You can see it below the original that has the brown streak marks.

Today I also got 5 of the 7 through hulls out of the boat, and will be glassing over the holes when I get a day that is warm enough to do so (think: spring).  I will be glassing over them because the boat no longer has a marine head, as it is illegal to pump waste overboard unless you are 12+ miles offshore.  Since I will likely be living in a marina, I won't be 12+ miles offshore, so need another solution.  More to the point, however, is that with many through hulls, you now have more places for water to breach the hull.  If you notice, there are 3 through hulls all placed together, with one being 2-3 inches in diameter.  Should that through hull fail, you now have a 2-3 inch diameter column of water spraying into the boat.  That equates to THOUSANDS of gallons of water per hour, possibly tens of thousands.  It would only take 20-30 minutes to sink the boat at that rate, if you're lucky.  So removing (glassing over) holes in the boat is a great idea, because it lessens the chance that the boat will spring a leak. Plus, I may be able to sell the seacocks, which are brass, and in relatively good condition, to make up for switching to more modern tech.  More on that later.

Most of my day consisted of scraping paint.  The boat had water inside it for two weeks this spring because the hatches were not water tight, hence, the holes drilled in the bilge/keel.  Because the water sat in the boat for two weeks, the paint peeled off the hull and wooden structures within the boat.  Some of the structures in the boat have been destroyed by the water damage, and have to be rebuilt (pictures to come soon).  Others seemed to weather it okay.  Unfortunately, it means A WHOLE BOAT LOAD of paint scraping for me.  I was planning on scrubbing the remainder of the boat, but realized that it was a better plan to get rid of the paint flakes first.  Tomorrow should be washing day, assuming nothing else comes up, like it did today. 

I got a tip today that there was a lumber yard that had gone out of business, so there was lumber to be had for free.  Obviously I jumped at the chance since I have hatches and an interior to rebuild and am on a budget.  I spent a good chunk of the afternoon rooting through all the crap wood to find a few good boards that might work for building hatches.  For the price, I'll go with it.  If they don't pan out, at least I'll have an idea of what not to get next time! 

The Sea is a Strange and Wonderful Place!

So, while not live aboard related, it is interesting.  I work at a fish market.  I see fish on a regular basis.  They don't impress me much any more.  My least favorite fish to handle is the monk fish, also known as the angler fish (it has a lure on its head that it fishes for other fish with).  Usually we only get monk tails, but today we got whole fish.  All I can say is, these are creepy looking buggers, and I would not want to get bitten by one of them!

You'll have to pardon the poor photo quality, I don't have an iPhone....

You're rich?

I would like to put to rest a few misconceptions that I have come across as I tell people that I am working on the boat I picked up and am blogging the experience.

1)  I am NOT rich, unless you mean I am rich in the fact that I am living my dream.  I didn't think that's what you meant.  ;)  I bought the boat for $800.  No, that's not an exaggeration!!!  It was so priced because it needs about $2000 worth of work and retrofitting for living aboard for the summer months, with more required for the winter months.  I came to the $2000 number by estimating parts and material needed, not in labor costs.  I will be doing just about everything myself to save myself the labor costs.  I will also be living as lean as possible in the rest of my life to accomplish these goals.  It helps that most of my time is spent working or working on the boat. 

2) This is going to be a VERY intensive build.  I work 2 jobs (about 60 hours a week, over 6 days), so I really only have a day and a half a week to work on the boat.  That means in reality, I have about 30 days to prep the boat to go into the water in April, and it is now winter.  That means I cannot paint, fiberglass, or even clean what is left to clean (aka- most of the rest of the boat).  Ice in the boat is a serious concern because it can break the fiberglass hull, which will further delay, or maybe terminate, my live aboard schedule/dream. 

3) Yes, I plan to live on the boat in the winter.  Yes, I will be heating it, but with electric only, as I do not want CO2 or CO issues that come with heating with kerosene or any fossil fuel.

4) No, the boat will not have a shower.  It won't even have a flush toilet.  The boat does not have the space to facilitate those desires.  I will have a composting toilet, and I will be showering in the Marina bathroom (or maybe at work, as there is a shower there).  In the summer, I may run a solar shower (like you would use for camping) but that is yet to be determined. 

Trade beer for.....?

So I did not get so much accomplished today, but what I did get done was important.  Unfortunately one of my boat stands was a victim of the 10/16 earthquake.  It was already weak from corrosion, but it got bent when the earthquake shifted my boat a bit.  So today, I dropped by a friend's house, brought some beer, and traded it for some welding! 

Hopefully I will be able to get more done tomorrow after working the AM shift (3:20-8:30.....ugh...).  Through hulls should be coming off tomorrow, and more cleaning and deconstruction in prep for reconstruction and retrofitting. 

Open mouth, insert foot....

After hearing all about how bad Sandy was in NJ and NY, I feel it is appropriate to make an apology for my callous comments that the media hyped up the storm.  Obviously, with 157 people dead, it was a serious storm, and those are 157 families that are missing a family member.  I heard of a police man on Staten Island that rescued his family and a total of seven people from a flooding building only to be drown in the process.  I can't even begin to imagine what that family is going though.  I feel like my anger over media hype was poorly timed, and more importantly inappropriate.  I am sorry for that.